High School

EAST HAVEN — Cheshire High volleyball coach Sue Bavone made a simple declaration after her team's 3-0 loss to Darien in Saturday's Class LL state final at East Haven.

"It's a serving and passing game, and our passing just went south," she said. "When you can't pass, you can't get your hitters involved."

The No. 2 Rams' passing difficulties, combined with a sound performance in all aspects by the No. 1 Blue Wave, helped Darien to its 16th state championship and first in the state's highest class.

The game scores were 25-14, 25-18 and 25-21.

Cheshire (22-2) led early in both the first and second games before a pair of long Darien (24-0) runs gave it commanding edges in each.

In the first, the Blue Wave mounted a 12-3 run to grab an 18-8 advantage. Later, a kill by Riley Sousa sealed a 25-14 opening victory for Darien.

The story was similar in the second, when an 8-5 Cheshire lead turned into a six-point deficit when the Blue Wave strung together an 11-2 streak. Four different Darien players (Sousa, Brittany Osborn, Kelly Kosnik and Lauren Pryor) recorded kills during the run, after which the Blue Wave coasted to a 25-18 win.

"We all just trust each other so much," said Kosnik, who led Darien with 10 kills. "We know that when anybody goes up that they're going to give it their all."

Bavone said although the Blue Wave hit well, the Rams made it too easy at times.

"Bad passing on our part results in free balls that are easy to handle, so they were free to set up their hitters all over the place," Bavone said. "If we could have gotten some passing and gotten our hitters going, we would have pressured them a bit and all of their passes wouldn't have been picture-perfect."

With mostly first-year varsity players in the back row, Bavone thought the team's inexperience showed in the passing game.

"The first place nerves show up is in passing, and if you can't pass you can't play," Bavone said. "I have a sophomore libero (Maria Buzzelli) and juniors (Eryn Dorsey and Rebecca Ligi) that are passing. It's a crucial position. Passing is the toughest part of the game. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, we just didn't pass well."

Cheshire, who was playing in its first state title game since 2007, and Darien traded runs early in the third to tie the game at 13-all.

The last deadlock came at 18-all, when the Blue Wave rallied to win seven of the final 10 points, including a pair of aces by Kosnik.

"When you go back to serve you have this attitude that, I'm serving and I'm going to keep it," Kosnik said. "That's what we did."

Sousa, the tournament MVP, smashed the final kill off the Cheshire block to clinch Darien's first state title since 2009.

"My only disappointment about this game is that we didn't project how we've played all year," Bavone said. "Nothing against Darien but I don't think we challenged them. I think we were capable of challenging them."

Amanda Palladino (eight kills) and Lisa Walle (nine kills) will be among the Rams' five departing seniors from an otherwise young team.

"I'm very proud of the fact that we got here," Bavone said. "They thought it was a rebuilding year for us. If I can rebuild every year and go to a final, I'd be thrilled with that."

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